In the beginning...

After months of romper room in my belly(which was the best part...months of morning sickness, sciatica, and carpal tunnel were some highlights I'd rather forget), 4 days of excruciating labor, an almost almost natural birth which ended with an emergency C-Section, I should have known that Stefan was going to give me a run for my money. We were only home a couple of days when the colicky behavior started, despite him being to young for the broad range of reasons for inconsolable crying. Could it be gas, reflux, GERD? P.S. I believe what most people call colic isn't digestion related at all, but more on that later.

My now "fired" pediatrician diagnosed it as gas from breastfeeding. What I want to know is how gas got into my breasts, since that is just absurd! Then he sent me out for Pedialyte. ( He also told me to give up water, "plants drink water, humans drink JUICE." Ummmm...ok, we all learned that the human body is over 85% juice in school, right? UGH! But that is why he's FIRED!) Of course Pedialyte didn't work for his gas. To make a long story short, Mylicon worked some times, and Gripe water was less effective. We'd just have to deal with up to 6 hours of crying a night, he was just "high-needs" (a term coined by Dr. Sears of www.Dr.sears.com).

Elimination Diets

Cutting out Caffeine, however, DID do some good. The interwebs (you know that system of tubes which brought you this blog), seems to think that very little caffeine gets into breast milk, and that is should have little effect on baby. But that's not true...it had a big effect on Stefan! Unhappily, I relinquished my beloved Coke and french pressed cup of morning coffee.

After a time, mere distressed crying turned into eczema on his face and scalp which was an open wound that never went away, mucusy and slightly bloody stool, in addition to stiff back arching and obvious stomach discomfort. By 4 months old, the new Pediatrician I hired suggested he may have a milk allergy. I immediately started an elimination diet and mourning the loss cow/goat dairy, which I consumed at every meal and for many snacks during the day. It takes a couple of weeks for this to work, but once dairy was out of my system, Stefan was tons better. I will find the time to go on about this elimination diet in the future.

Next to tackle: Sleep issues.
(One of the challenges of a high-needs infant is finding enough time to do anything else but attend to him during the day...and now is one of those times...so more to come later!)

Welcome!

S is for Stefan, the little man, the myth, the monster! I love my little monster, but he's got me on my toes all of the time. I can't believe how much he's taught me, and I can't fathom how much I have yet to learn. Here is my blog of him:)